DeChambeau's Affection For Majors, Scottie Scheffler's Inevitability Lead The List Of Storylines For U.S. Open

The U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club. There aren't many greater sentences in major championship golf than that one, and we should be treated to a memorable four days this week in Pennsylvania.

The golf course itself is consistently the main character when it comes to U.S. Opens, and this week should certainly be no exception. The national open returns to the memorable grounds for the first time since 2016, when Dustin Johnson came from behind to win his first of two majors over the likes of Shane Lowry and Jim Furyk.

Nasty, treacherous rough with plenty of subtle tournament-destroying spots guard the fairways and 18 greens that demand any hopeful contender's full-blown attention. The course is long and can throw haymakers in a number of different ways. It's your typical, albeit very special U.S. Open venue, and one that welcomes a fair share of must-know storylines heading into the opening round on Thursday.

Scottie Scheffler, A Man Possessed

Scottie Scheffler was historically great in 2024, and despite a delayed start to this season due to a hand injury, he may, somehow, be on his way to an even more memorable year in 2025.

Scheffler has won three of his last four starts, which include trophy ceremonies at both the PGA Championship and the Memorial Tournament. Dating back to September 2024 over the course of 14 starts, his worst finish was a T-25, and the last time he finished worse than eighth came at The Players all the way back in March.

With Scheffler being in the best form of his career, he has to be licking his chops to try and claim his first U.S. Open title at what many may view as the toughest test he's faced in his professional career.

His ball-striking is historic, he's one of the best drivers of the golf ball in the world, his putter has been an ally all season, and he possesses creativity around the greens that U.S. Open setups demand. He also just wins golf tournaments, making him impossible not to love heading into the week.

Bryson DeChambeau's Affection For Majors

Some players, not many, possess the skill set where it almost feels like they were born to play and contend in U.S. Opens, and DeChambeau is one of those guys. If we went 10 years into the future and read that DeChambeau had five U.S. Opens to his name, nobody would be shocked.

While he's won two of the last five U.S. Opens, Dechambeau has actually been remarkably consistent across the board in majors played on U.S. soil. To go along with his win at last year's U.S. Open, DeChambeau has four Top Six finishes and one T-20 finish in his last seven major championship appearances in the United States.

Oakmont should be a perfect fit for DeChambeau, given that he's the best driver in the game and has proven twice that he knows how to take down U.S. Opens.

With a win this week, DeChambeau would become just the seventh player in history to win three or more U.S. Opens. Tiger Woods was the most recent addition to that club when he won the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.

The State Of Rory McIlroy

Yes, just like in the lead-up to this year's Masters and the PGA Championship, Scheffler, DeChambeau, and McIlroy create the three-headed monster taking up much of the early attention of the U.S. Open.

After what we've seen from McIlroy since he completed the career Grand Slam at Augusta National in April, McIlroy has gone from what felt like a sure-thing contender to a giant question mark. That feels insane to write heading into a place like Oakmont with McIlroy finishing inside the Top 10 in six consecutive U.S. Opens, but it doesn't make it untrue.

Rory McIlroy Receives Huge Gift With U.S. Open Tee Times Announced For First Two Rounds

McIlroy has only made three individual starts since winning the Masters. He showed life with a T-7 finish at the Truist Championship a month ago, but piggybacked that with a T-47 finish in the PGA Championship and an ugly missed cut at the RBC Canadian Open a week ago.

The question surrounding McIlroy's game has nothing to do with his ability, but everything to do with how motivated he is. 

He's just a human, and one who completed a lifelong dream by completing the career Grand Slam two months ago, meaning he may not exactly be as locked in at this point in time as he was eight or so weeks ago.

Overlooking McIlroy in a U.S. Open is dangerous business, specifically one that will favor long hitters, but it's hard not to given what we've seen from him in recent weeks.

A Par 3 That Calls For Driver

One of the biggest talking points we'll continue to hear about throughout U.S. Open week is the Par 3 8th hole, which is set to be played around 290 yards from the tee. It actually played to a full 300 yards when the tournament was held at Oakmont in 2007.

Collin Morikawa, and surely plenty of other players in the field, hit a driver into the Par 3 during practice rounds early in the week.

The Par 3 stretching out to nearly 300 yards, has led to the debate online about whether it's fair. I lean towards the idea that these are the best players in the world playing in a U.S. Open on what is widely considered to be one of the hardest golf courses in the world. A 300-yard Par 3 sort of checks out.

Xander Schauffele Embracing Anticipated Carnage

"I don't think people turn the TV on to watch some of the guys just hit like a 200-yard shot on the green. I think they turn on the U.S. Open to see a guy shooting 8-over and suffer."

That's a quote Xander Schauffele delivered in the press room at Oakmont, proving that he's tuned into the fact that golf fans appreciate seeing the best players in the world struggle. 

It is a much easier thing for Schauffele to say, given he's finished T-14 or better in all eight of his U.S. Open starts in his career, but it's a quote that should still be appreciated.

Jon Rahm Is Back, Ready For A Breakthrough

Rahm was forced to withdraw ahead of the 2024 U.S. Open due to an infected cut on his foot, and returns to the championship he won in 2021 in form, or at least appearing to be.

The Spaniard checks the off-the-tee box this week and should be comfortable at a golf course many believe favors faders of the golf ball. He's also yet to finish outside the Top 10 in a LIV Golf event and showed up in a major way with a T-8 finish at the PGA Championship a month ago.

Rahm has been fantastic in recent U.S. Opens, but he's such an elite talent that he's one of those players where you have to see it to believe it to perhaps fully commit to the idea of him winning. His game looks to be there, but no wins in 2025 and just the one solid result at the PGA Championship have many still sitting on the fence.

Jon Rahm enters U.S. Open week in form and with something to prove. (Jeff Faughender/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK)

He does deserve credit for his candidness and appears to be in a great headspace heading into Thursday's opening round as he shared an honest assessment of his Top 10 streak on LIV.

"I'm a realist in this case. I've been playing really good golf, yes, but I'd be lying if I said that it wasn't easier to have top 10s with a smaller field," Rahm said. "That's just the truth, right? Had I been playing full field events, would I have top 10s every single week? No."

How Many Players Can Actually Win The U.S. Open?

There is Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau, and then what feels to be a very significant gap between the rest of the players in the field who can win the U.S. Open. It's golf on an insanely difficult track, so plenty of outcomes can unfold, but it's been quite a while since it's felt like the next tier of players is this far away from the leaders of the pack.

That notion has plenty to do with Scheffler separating himself from everyone and playing generational golf, but it's also influenced by the run of major championship winners we've had in recent years.

Eight of the last 10 major championships have been won by this list of players: Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau, Xander Schauffele, Brooks Koepka, and Jon Rahm. Those aren't exactly Cinderella stories.

You have to go back to the end of 2023, when Wyndham Clark and Brian Harman won the 2023 U.S. Open and 2023 Open to find the ‘outlier’ of the bunch.

It feels like a stretch to come up with a list that goes beyond 10 players who can legitimately win this year's U.S. Open. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, either. The field has never been deeper, and we're seeing historic stuff out of the No. 1 player in the world, but there certainly seems to be an aura around this championship that we're going to have to wait at least another year before we see a player fly from under the radar and land in the winner's circle.